You have probably heard of studies that demonstrate that periodontal disease is linked to heart disease.  It seems to be a generally accepted, although not well understood, connection.  Just like the rest of your body, the mouth provides powerful bio-feedback.  The human body is one complete organism, one ecosystem.  Nothing happens in the one part of the body without it affecting the other parts.  Problems in your mouth are significant messages that something is out of balance.

When we develop cavities, bad breath (in the absence of garlic…lol), require root canals, develop gum inflammation or sensitivity in the teeth where there was none before there is a reason.  Nothing is random.  It might seem more reassuring to fix the problem in the mouth, and sometimes it does originate in the mouth, and move forward but you haven’t always resolved the underlying issue.  You silenced your symptoms.  Those symptoms are messages from your body letting you know there is an imbalance.  Don’t freak out and think “oh great, now I have a brain tumor!” just because you have a dental issue, but your body is trying to alert you to something.

Want to know why I got interested in this?  About 7 years ago I had a period of several months where wacky health problems plagued me.  I developed eczema on my hands that the dermatologist said was fungal, I had a series of yeast infections and bacterial infections in the ‘hoo ha’ region, I had a bout with irritable bowel syndrome that lasted 3 weeks and kept me nearly confined to my house and to top it off my tooth died in excruciatingly painful fashion, enough to make me rock back and forth in agony and get my husband on the phone to my dentist at 11 p.m. begging for relief.

When I saw my dentist the next day I asked why my tooth had died out of the blue and required a root canal.  He told me ‘sometimes it just happens’.  I wasn’t really satisfied with his explanation but I had no understanding of where else I could turn for answers.  When I was diagnosed with a brain tumor 4 years later my husband and I immediately thought back to that period of time and wondered if it could all be related.  Mark Mincolla, my nutritional ‘guru’, confirmed that at my very first appointment when he handed me an article entitled “cancer is a fungus.”  Systemic yeast issues wreak havoc on the body and decimate the immune system.

Two months later I found myself back in the dentist’s chair for my first post-brain tumor diagnosis cleaning.  This time I had to inform them that my health status had changed…to say the least!  My dental hygienist asked me if in the previous few years I had had any unusual dental issues.  When I told her about the dead tooth she told me that the mouth is often a first indicator of problems in other parts of the body.  This was not a holistic dentist.  This was my regular hygienist who just happened to have had cancer herself and began to research beyond what the medical establishment was publicizing.  My father also had nearly $10,000 worth of dental work done just one year before his lung cancer diagnosis.  Please don’t misunderstand me, I am not suggesting that cancer always comes with dental problems or vice versa.  What I am asking is that you consider that nothing happens in the body in a vacuum.  Problems in your mouth are signals attempting to alert you to imbalances.  Why do we think some children seem to end up with a multitude of cavities?  I don’t doubt that diet plays a huge role in this but rather than it just being about sugar decaying tooth enamel, is it perhaps also what that poor diet is doing internally that is showing up as cavities?  What teeth are these cavities showing up on?  What organs and glands are these teeth connected to?  Following the trail might lead to the answers to other health issues.

Ancient cultures have long recognized the connection between the mouth and the body.   In fact, ancient Chinese medicine recognized the mouth as a reflection of a person’s total health.  Acupuncture recognizes a system of meridians (pathways) that connect body parts energetically.  The meridians are the channels through which chi (life force energy) flows to nourish and energize the human body.  These channels exist within the subtle body, are not visible, and act as a network of communication between the physical and the more subtle energetic bodies.  There are 12 main meridians. Not coincidentally the tooth that had cause me so much trouble was connected to the thymus gland, the master gland of the immune system responsible for releasing important cancer-fighting cells.  The teeth are an important part of the system of meridians.  In fact, my new dentist’s office actually distributes a tooth meridian chart to all new patients!

So if you are having mouth trouble how do you know how to read the clues?  To appreciate where the problem might originate you simply need to identify which tooth is causing you problems and look at the corresponding points on the body (tooth chart). The tooth chart also contains connections to specific emotional challenges and which teeth they correspond to.   You might also like to learn about how to interpret what your tongue is revealing (tongue chart).

Whether you choose to believe in the connection or not is, of course, entirely up to you.  My purpose in writing this is to give you more tools to help you decipher the messages that your body is always sending you.  So the next time you have a dental issue, look to the charts and consider what might be contributing to your discomfort from beyond your mouth.  Vibrant health is truly “wholistic”.  Consider moving away from treating symptoms and move toward healing your whole being.  When you learn what the messages mean and work to correct the imbalance, the body will stop sending you distress signals.